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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Why do people value money so much? There is, after all, nothing very attractive about grubby pieces of paper, dirty metal discs, or digital records in a database. Money gives us the ability to obtain the things or situations we desire. With money we can buy the security, power, recognition, stimulus, or whatever else we think we need in order to find fulfillment.

But money also has more pernicious effect upon society. It takes no great mind to see that financial expediency lies behind much of our inhumanity to each other and our callous treatment of other creatures. Some more radical thinkers have argued that money should be eliminated—and with it the notions of possession and property. It is certainly true that some of the less material cultures have no notion of property, possession or money; and have survived very well, and in greater harmony with the rest of life. But in the more-developed societies some means of symbolic exchange is essential—we may not always want to receive chickens in return for our solar panels.

Furthermore, eliminating money would only eliminate the symptom of the problem. It is not ‘money’ that is the root of all evil (as is sometimes misquoted) but ‘the love of money’.

Usury

Our love of money not only causes us to make decisions that are not in our own best interests, it also leads to usury—the charging of interest on a loan.

Nothing wrong with that, one might think (particularly if you are the lender), everyone does it. Why should others not pay for the use of one’s money? At the very least we should receive a sufficient return on our investments to keep up with inflation —and if we can make a bit more, why not?